Lovitz's Success Was No Overnighter

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Before Jon Lovitz made comedy his way of life, he tried everything else. He was an orderly in a hospital, a messenger and, for two years, he sold clothing out of a guy's apartment.

The man who co-starred on Saturday Night Live, became The Critic on cable TV and appeared in movies including A League of Their Own has been on his own rat race since he gave up dreams of a baseball career at 15.

Now as one of the stars in the farcical film Rat Race, which opens Friday, Lovitz is glad he stuck it out. Even though he had a 3.4 grade-point average in a private boys' school in Southern California, he didn't exactly look like the boy most likely to succeed.

"I did about 21 plays in college and took an acting class and then went to New York for a year and did the Renaissance Faire, but I wasn't getting any jobs. So I went back to Los Angeles and started at the Groundlings [an improv comedy group]."

Lovitz's dad was a doctor who was not overly pleased with the way things were going. When he was 25, Lovitz finally landed a part on The Paper Chase, but only for two shows.

"So in seven years I worked two weeks. That was it. So I was getting worried." Lovitz earned a spot on The Tonight Show and two months later he signed with an agent.

"I was telling him, `Get me extra work on soaps,' because I was a messenger and I wasn't making any money and the messenger service was going downhill. It ended up, the owner's grandmother -- who was 85 -- was the dispatcher."

There was a low point when Lovitz was about to give up.

"I heard a preacher on the radio. And he said, `People say they want to be rich and famous and do different things, but ask yourself: Are you willing to do what you have to do to get what you want?' . . . And he said it again. And most people aren't. So I thought about it and remember thinking, `Do I really want to do this?' And thinking it was this long tunnel with no light at the end and, I don't know, and I just thought, `No.' I remember thinking, `I just gotta quit.' But the next morning I said, `I'm not going to quit, I just have to work harder.' "